We discussed the progress people with disabilities have made since the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) was passed 25 years ago, on July 26, 1990. Jennifer McPhail who just returned from Washington, D.C. where she met with leaders regarding the ADA, shares her experience. We discuss the need for vigilance siting the Civil Rights Summit, April of 2014, which originally excluded people with disabilities, and that we still can’t find accessible hotel rooms.

We also discussed passing the torch. This past year we elected a new city council in Austin. We have a new Legislature. Texas also has a new governor, Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair. We talked about issues discussed this last legislative session including same sex marriage and open carry. However, according to Dennis Borel, the major issues in Texas are health, education, transportation, and water. This past Legislature also cut taxes, which is bad. During the next economic downturn the Legislature will make cuts in services rather than increase taxes. The good things that came out of the legislature are the ABLE program, and keeping Independent Living in Health and Human services, guardianship reform, and the Gila Monster bill which promotes biomedicine, and MAMMA – Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism. We didn’t get attendant pay raise to $10 dollars an hour, we did get a 14 cent raise to 8 dollars an hour.

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Short Film Competition View 2018 Finalists! Oct. 4, 2018 Counting down to Cinema Touching Disability! Jennifer Bracy, CTD Film Fest volunteer For the past 15 years, we’ve been honored to bring you cross-disability cinema; thanks for making Cinema Touching Disability the longest running and most successful disability film event in Texas! We hope […]